ALTON, MISSOURI – A mentally ill Missouri woman committed suicide by shooting herself in the head with a police officer’s gun while getting a ride to a local hospital in a squad car on Wednesday.

The St. Louis County Police Department said Stephanie Hicks, 20, got into a struggle with an Alton police officer over his weapon.

Hicks’ former boyfriend Eric Perry said she had been dealing with a bi-polar disorder and decided to seek professional help, according to the TV station KSDK.

Scroll down to watch videoStephanie Hicks, 20, fatally shot herself in the head on Wednesday after wrestling a gun away from a police officer

Untimely death: Stephanie Hicks, 20, fatally shot herself in the head on Wednesday after wrestling a gun away from a police officer

Loved ones said Hicks had been struggling with a bi-polar disorder and other mental issues

Troubled: Loved ones said Hicks had been struggling with a bi-polar disorder and other mental issues

On Wednesday morning, she set out on foot in the sweltering heat from her home in Alton toward Christian Northeast Hospital about nine-and-a-half miles away.

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An officer found Hicks walking across the Clark Bridge, which crosses the Mississippi River at Alton, and called for an EMS crew to examine her, St. Louis Today reported.

Alton Police Chief David Hayes said on Thursday that Hicks was not suicidal on the bridge, but simply trying to reach the hospital. She was medically cleared by the paramedics.An officer found Hicks walking across the Clark Bridge, which crosses the Mississippi River at Alton

Chance encounter: An officer found Hicks walking across the Clark Bridge, which crosses the Mississippi River at Alton

Hicks was walking in the heat to Christian Northeast Hospital located more than nine miles from her home

Seeking help: Hicks was walking in the heat to Christian Northeast Hospital located more than nine miles from her home

Hicks got into the passenger seat of the patrol car because police said she was not in custody, and it was too hot in the back

Courtesy ride: Hicks got into the passenger seat of the patrol car because police said she was not in custody, and it was too hot in the back

At around 9am, the officer pulled over and asked Hicks if she needed a ride. The 20-year-old got into the front seat because the back of the car is for prisoners, and Hicks was not in custody.

‘In the back seat of those police cars, whatever the temperature is outside it’s usually 15 to 20 degrees hotter inside,’ Hayes said.

While it is not customary for Alton police officers to offer citizens courtesy rides, the officer called his commanding officer and received permission to drive Hicks, who was apparently known to the department.

When the vehicle reached Dunn Road and Highway 367, officials said the woman unexpectedly grabbed the pistol carried in a holster on the policeman’s right hip. Officials said the woman did not say a word in the moments before she grabbed the officer’s gun at Dunn Road and Highway 367

Chaotic scene: Officials said the woman did not say a word in the moments before she grabbed the officer’s gun at Dunn Road and Highway 367

Police said the officer told them Hicks didn’t say anything in the car before unsnapping his holster and shooting herself.

She was taken to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, where she died from her injury.

The patrol car was equipped with a video camera, Hayes said, but it is wired to the emergency lights and was not running. The officer turned on the lights after the shooting, and the camera captured the tragic aftermath.

The officer driving Hicks is a 13-year veteran on the Alton police force. He’s been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. Hicks’ mother, Robin, said her daughter should have never been allowed to be in a position to take the pistol

Devastated: Hicks’ mother, Robin, said her daughter should have never been allowed to be in a position to take the pistol

Hayes emphasized that the unnamed officer did not violate department procedures.

However, the victim’s relatives have expressed anger at the police, questioning how a 5-foot-1-inch woman who weighed only about 80 pounds managed to wrestle a gun away from the officer.

‘She got that gun and there’s no way she should have got that gun,’ the victim’s mother, Robin Hicks, told Fox 2 Now. ‘And I’m angry, and I’m pissed, and this is not right!’

HALLS, TENNESSEE – The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation arrested a Halls Police Department officer on Tuesday after he was indicted by the Lauderdale County Grand Jury on Monday.

Jason Colvin, 32, of Halls, Tenn. was charged in the indictments with three counts of official misconduct, one count of theft more than $500 and less than $1,000, one count of accessory after the fact, one count of facilitation of a felony and compounding.

According to a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation release, the TBI was requested to open an investigation on Colvin on April 12, 2012, after the Halls Police Department received a complaint on him. The allegations against Colvin included that while he was working as an officer for the Halls Police Department, he obtained a handgun from a person known to be a convicted felon and attempted to sell a stolen handgun at a pawnshop in Halls.

Colvin was arrested and booked into the Lauderdale County Jail on Tuesday. He has been on paid leave from the department, but he has now been placed on unpaid leave.

TALLAHASSEE; FLORIDA – A Tallahassee Police officer has been charged with aggravated assault without the intent to kill and burglary with assault.

Lyle Ottley, 33, has been placed on paid suspension from the Tallahassee Police Department.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Ottley allegedly entered Herman Samuel’s home and threatened him with a gun. The report states that around 2 a.m., Samuel was sleeping next to officer Ottley’s ex-girlfriend Erica Brooks in their home.

Ottley was in uniform at the time when he allegedly banged on the front door and asked for some of their son’s belongings. The officer then entered the home uninvited and went inside the master bedroom, questioning Samuel about why he was there.

Ms. Brooks reportedly ran to a neighboring house owned by another local police man. While Mr. Ottley remained in her home, Ottley allegedly pulled out his hand gun and also punched the wall and bedroom door several times.

Samuel reported that he felt threatened for his life. We spoke to neighbors and they all stated that they had no idea that this had gone on right next door to them.

HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA – Prosecutors in Pennsylvania said a police officer who shot his wife in the buttocks was showing his gun to family and friends when it discharged.

Dauphin County District Attorney Edward M. Marsico Jr. said Harrisburg police officer William Owens was showing off his gun at his home around 6 p.m. Saturday when the firearm accidentally discharged several times, striking Lakita Owens once in the buttocks, The Patriot-News, Harrisburg, reported Thursday.

Marsico said investigators are working to determine whether alcohol played a role in the incident, and charges could be filed if the shooting is determined to have been reckless.

Owens, who was suspended without pay, declined to comment on the investigation. He said his wife is recovering from her injury.

MARYSVILLE, WASHINGTON – Prosecutors charged a Washington state police officer Tuesday in the accidental death of his 7-year-old daughter, saying it was unconscionable for him to leave his loaded handgun loose in the family van, where the girl’s younger brother grabbed it and shot her.

Marysville police officer Derek Carlile could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of second-degree manslaughter, a charge that involves criminal negligence.

Carlile “failed to heed … a substantial risk that death would occur when he placed and left his loaded, unsecured revolver in an enclosed van with four children inside,” Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Lisa Paul wrote in charging papers.

“Though the undeniable tragedy and grief that has stricken the defendant and his family is staggering, compassion must be balanced with accountability,” she wrote.

The shooting occurred March 10 while the van was parked at a store in Stanwood. Carlile and his wife were outside the van when the 3-year-old, who had a fascination with guns, got out of his booster seat, grabbed the weapon and shot his sister Jenna in the torso, investigators said. The safety of the gun was off, they said.

Carlile’s attorney, David Allen, said the family was disappointed in the charging decision. Carlile takes full responsibility for his daughter’s death, but his actions weren’t criminal, Allen said.

“This is a double tragedy for the Carlile family that not only lost Jenna, but now also faces the possibility of losing Derek to prison,” Allen wrote in a news release.

The charging papers say the 31-year-old Carlile, a police officer since 2009, had worked until 2 a.m., then woke up that morning to go antique shopping with a friend. He was late returning from the shopping trip, and he and his family had to rush to get ready to attend a wedding reception.

When he got into the van, he placed his personal .38-caliber revolver – not his service weapon – in a bin on the floor between the driver’s and front passenger’s seats, a space typically reserved for cups and keys, the deputy prosecutor wrote.

His wife asked what he was doing because he usually wore the gun or placed it in a locking compartment on the driver-side door. She later told investigators that she assumed he moved the gun after she brought it to his attention.

On the way to the wedding, the family stopped at the art studio and store in Stanwood. Carlile’s wife, Forrest, went inside, and Carlile spoke with the owner, the same friend with whom he had gone antique shopping that morning.

Carlile heard the gunshot, and another daughter, age 5, got out of the van, saying something about the boy, Jenna and the gun. Carlile ran to the van, opened the sliding door, and saw Jenna slumped over, still wearing her seatbelt. He tried to save her life, but she died at a hospital.

Carlile later refused to let detectives speak with his other children, and prosecutors used a special court proceeding to compel the testimony of the 5-year-old. She told them she and her older sister remained in their seats while the 3-year-old ran up and grabbed the gun, the documents state.

“She said she heard a boom and saw smoke coming from the victim,” Paul wrote.

Detectives did not interview the 3-year-old because of his age. The other child in the car was a 1-year-old.

Patricia Cook was shot multiple times in her Jeep Wrangler in a parking lot of a school annex on North East Street in the Town of Culpeper.

The lawsuit, filed on May 11, 2012 in Culpeper County Circuit Court, says Officer Harmon-Wright carried through on his threat to shoot Mrs. Cook if she did not stop rolling up her car window and do as he demanded. It says he shot her at close range and continued firing at her as she attempted to depart.

The lawsuit says “Defendant Harmon-Wright did not have his hand or arm trapped inside the car window of Mrs. Cook’s Jeep at any time during this incident.”

It also says the officer was not dragged by Mrs. Cook’s vehicle and that he suffered no injuries as a result of Mrs. Cook’s actions. It says she did not user her vehicle as a weapon and did not try to strike or injure the defendant.

The lawsuit says, “When Defendant Harmon-Wright attempted to bully and coerce Mrs. Cook into complying with his commands by raising his voice and threatening to shoot her, she was lawfully entitled to refuse to comply with his commands and was was lawfully entitled to depart unharmed and unhindered.”

Virginia State Police first said that the officer fired in self-defense because she had caught his arm in her window and was dragging him. But an eyewitness told WUSA 9 News that he clearly saw the officer’s left hand on the door handle and his right on on his gun. The witness said that the officer’s arm was not caught as he yelled at the woman to stop. The witness said he was stunned when he saw the officer shoot and continue shooting as Cook drove away.